


Hot Drinks and a Movie

by Swump (Zelan)



Series: 12 Days of Whumpmas - VLD [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Sickfic, VLD Whumpmas 2017, strep throat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13268016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelan/pseuds/Swump
Summary: Lance is sick during the big annual Christmas party and feeling down about it.





	Hot Drinks and a Movie

**Author's Note:**

> this is super late even though it was literally done like a month ago
> 
> Bonus points if you can tell me what movie they're watching.

Usually, Lance is the life of the party. He always has some person to impress, some story to tell, some stunt to pull. For better or for worse, it’s in his nature. And Christmas has always been his favorite holiday. So it’s very odd to have a Christmas party, however small, where Lance does nothing but sit silently on the couch.

“strep’s a bitch. sorry about that ♡” Pidge had texted when he’d told them about it in the group chat. The others had all chimed in as well with apologies and advice. (Except Keith. He left everything on read, as usual.) Still, no one really knew how to make Lance feel better.

It was bad enough that he was sick. As Pidge knew from experience, strep was no fun - sore throat, nausea, a fever - it all combined into one disease designed specifically to knock you flat for at least a week. But the real toll on Lance was the loss of his voice. He relied on it to express himself, and it was as much a part of him as any aspect of his personality. Without it, he felt a little listless.

His friends all picked up on that, but they weren’t quite sure what to do about it. The awkwardness ended up with Lance curled up on the couch underneath of a blanket and everyone else hanging out in the kitchen with eggnog and hot chocolate.

Keith was the one who finally did something about it. He and Lance were never really great friends. They’d met each other through their own friends. Shiro knew Pidge - no, wait, Shiro knew _Matt_ , who was Pidge’s brother, and then Lance… wait, wasn’t Hunk somewhere in that chain of people?

Whatever. The point was, Keith and Lance weren’t close. But over the past couple years, Keith had gotten used to hearing Lance’s loud, laughing voice in the background. Seeing him now alone in his misery felt wrong.

That was how Keith ended up sitting next to him on the couch at one AM with a mug in each hand.

“I made you peppermint tea,” he said, sitting gingerly on the couch. His own mug was dangerously close to overflowing, and he did not want to spend ten minutes cleaning up spilled hot chocolate.

Lance looked surprised to see him, but he eagerly leaned forward to accept the steaming mug from Keith. Clutching it in both hands, he took a tentative sip. Keith was glad to see some degree of relief come over Lance’s features.

Keith stared at the TV in front of him - Lance had some old Christmas movie on - and absentmindedly slurped his own drink. He was interrupted by a sharp wheeze.

He looked back over at Lance and was immediately confused by the huge grin on his face. Seeing his questioning gaze, Lance wiggled his eyebrows and took another sip of his tea, this time sucking it up as noisily as he possibly could. Keith found himself chuckling at the overexaggerated sound. He responded in kind, doing his best to one-up Lance by drowning him out.

He could feel the thin layer of chocolate coating his upper lip as soon as he put his mug down. Instead of licking it away, he turned to Lance with a goofy expression, feeling at ease with their voiceless communication.

Lance quickly leaned forward to place his mug on the table in front of them, shoulders shaking with raspy laughter. As soon as he looked up, having composed himself somewhat, Keith ran his tongue over the chocolate mustache, setting Lance off again.

Finally, they both calmed themselves down and returned to drinking normally, this time both with content smiles on their faces. Just as he was finishing his hot chocolate, Lance tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the TV. Keith hadn’t been paying attention, but it looked like the movie was ending; everyone onscreen was singing in a finale-sounding way.

As he watched, the four leads met behind a Christmas tree and paired off to make out with each other. Keith thought it was a little weird that they did this in the middle of a song - like, everyone else was still singing - but then again, he didn’t really know much about musicals.

The credits started rolling, and a little “Up Next” popped up in the corner of the screen - the classic _Home Alone_ face by the one and only Macaulay Culkin. Keith smiled to see it; _Home Alone_ was one of his favorite childhood movies, and it still held up today as long as he didn’t think too much about the fact that the kid knowingly put the Wet Bandits through that much pain.

Lance sees it too, and immediately turns to him with his best approximation of the face. Keith’s own sharp peal of laughter surprises him after sitting in silence for so long, but hearing it seems to brighten Lance even more. Burrowing more deeply into the blankets, Lance settled in to watch.

Keith was getting tired after the day’s festivities, but he stayed put. He figured there were worse places to fall asleep than watching a movie on the couch with Lance McClain.


End file.
